


Graduation

by DesertVixen



Category: Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-19
Updated: 2013-10-19
Packaged: 2017-12-29 20:46:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1009921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/pseuds/DesertVixen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charlie Thomas' thoughts at graduation</p>
            </blockquote>





	Graduation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [baseballchica03](https://archiveofourown.org/users/baseballchica03/gifts).



> Last minute idea for a treat! I hope this hits your soft spot for Charlie Thomas.

Sometimes he had wished for it. 

Charlie Thomas could freely admit that now and then, he had wondered what it would be like to have Richard Spier for a stepfather. 

It was like the plot of some of the movies that made his mother all weepy – one girl’s divorced mother marries the widower father of the girl’s best friend, and they all lived together happily ever after. They were even next-door neighbors already, so it wouldn’t be like anyone had to move very far. 

Only it never happened. Charlie knew they had gone on a date once, but nothing had ever come from it. 

Richard was so different from his own father. 

Patrick Thomas was a walking bank of baseball knowledge, and some of Charlie’s better memories involved Patrick standing up in the stands at his baseball games, or the time they had gone to see the Yankees play for his tenth birthday. He had also been prone to yelling at the slightest provocation, and one night not long after that Yankees game, he had walked out of the house and out of their lives. There had been cards that came late and promises that weren’t kept, and even sporadic periods where child support was paid – but it never lasted.

Richard Spier, on the other hand, had been constant. He was on the solemn side, and super-strict with Mary Anne, but he had always been approachable for Charlie. Mostly the traffic went the other way, with the Thomas household being a noisy hub of neighborhood activity, but sometimes Charlie found himself over there just to talk.

His mother had remarried, and Charlie liked her new husband, but they didn’t have the same sort of comfortable relationship. Watson Brewer was good with people, and had managed to give all four of his stepchildren the right sort of treatment, welcoming them without smothering them. The marriage had meant moving across town, taking them out of the comfortable small world of Bradford Court, and Charlie had fewer opportunities to see Richard. Sometimes he saw him when he was taking Kristy to her club meetings at Claudia’s house, but nowhere near as often as before.

Then, in another movie-plot-worthy twist, Richard had remarried. His high school sweetheart had moved back to Stoneybrook after living in California, a divorced mother of two. Charlie had his suspicions that his younger sister’s friends had something to do with bringing them back together. As a result, Richard and Mary Anne Spier had also left Bradford Court. 

The families still did things together, when they could manage the schedules and logistics – a big enough problem in his own house, where the number of people fluctuated depending on the week. There were cookouts where Charlie found himself sitting in a quieter part of the yard with Richard, watching the people around them, and talking about what Charlie was planning to do after high school. Those times never lasted too long, as he always got drawn into an impromptu football game or some other activity, but Charlie enjoyed them. One of the few things that Richard and Watson had in common was that they never treated Charlie like just another one of the kids. He’d been seventeen when Watson really came into the picture, while Richard had watched him do what he could to help his mother. 

Despite the two men’s presence, Charlie had to admit that there was a small piece of him that missed his father, or at least wanted him to know that without any help from him, they were turning out all right. That was why he had sent Patrick Thomas the graduation announcement. He had mailed it to the address his last birthday card had come from, two years ago. Since it had not found its way back into his mailbox, Charlie had to assume it had been delivered. There had been no reply – no card or phone call acknowledging his oldest son’s graduation from high school. If he was honest with himself, he hadn’t really expected one.

Now, the seniors of Stoneybrook High’s latest graduating class were milling around outside the football field where they would graduate. The poor teachers charged with ensuring that all one hundred and thirty-seven of them were arranged in alphabetical order and ready to graduate were trying to do their job, with a minimum of help from the students. Charlie found himself mentally counting down how long it would take before their vice-principal broke out his bullhorn. 

Finally, they were quiet and lined up, filing into the chairs that had been placed on the football field. Charlie didn’t need to look over to what was normally the “home section” to know that his mother had everyone in their seats, waiting for the ceremony to begin. He would see them when he walked across the platform they had set up. Instead, he was talking for the last time with Jessica Teller and Greg Thompson – the three of them had started sixth grade together, and had spent the last six years sitting next to each other at pretty much every event requiring alphabetical order. 

They had a gorgeous summer day, and Charlie was glad that the sunshine meant they hadn’t been crammed into the gymnasium for graduation. The football field seating meant that it was easier to accommodate big families, definitely a concern for him. Their navy blue and crimson graduation gowns were a little stifling, but the auditorium would have been just as stuffy.

Like most school ceremonies, this one – the last one – seemed like it was taking forever. It didn’t help that there weren’t that many people who came after “Thomas”, but finally Rachel Riordan gave the rest of the row the motion to stand, and they were walking towards the platform. 

When they called his name, he crossed the stage and took the crimson diploma holder from their principal with one hand, shaking his hand with the other, just as they had practiced about a hundred times the day before. It was only after that that he could look and see them – all of them. His mother and Watson, his siblings, his grandmother, and Richard, all of them furiously applauding. Charlie hadn’t realized until that moment that a small part of him had been hoping to see someone else there, a tall man who knew everything about the Yankees, the one who had given him his dark hair and eyes, and not much else. It would have been awkward to have him there, but he could admit that it hurt to know that his father wasn’t even acknowledging the day.

After the graduating class had thrown their caps in the air, their spectators were allowed to join them on the field for pictures and congratulations. Charlie found himself surrounded by his people. There had been hugs and congratulations, and they had a graduation party planned for the evening. 

He had his family, and didn’t need the man who wasn’t there.


End file.
